Chapter 240
Chapter 240: Pirates (Part 1)
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Saleen was engulfed by a cloud of fog before he was lifted into the air towards the winged skeleton. The winged skeleton had received a direct strike from the pikoosi, and only its skull was still in one piece.
“You will live.” Saleen took out a gem from the Ring of Gifts. This gem had been segmented and so it was crystal clear. The gem had a translucent green hue, and there seemed to be smoke swirling around its core. If one did not possess adequate mental power, they would be entranced the moment they made eye contact with the gem.
“I know that you are exhausted. Come in and rest.” Saleen raised the gem, and the green smoke within it began swirling furiously, causing the winged skeleton and its broken bone fragments to fly into the gem. Upon taking a second look, a skeleton with two pairs of wings could vaguely be seen within that green smoke. The green smoke was tirelessly treating the injuries on the skeleton.
“The green spirit!” Even though Lex knew that Saleen had many gems in his possession, she still felt a little astounded.
The green spirit was a gem used for sealing. To mages who were well versed in summoning creatures, its value exceeded that of the ice island rock. The ice island rock was merely low in production, but it could still be purchased from the market. On the other hand, the green spirit was not a natural gem, or one could simply say that the Myers Mainland did not directly produce gems like this.
The green spirit was a variant derived from the gems brought along by extremely powerful people when they had traversed the planes. The green spirit contained the ability to seal contract creatures. Those contract creatures sealed within the green spirit would undergo a healing process.
If that was solely the case, then the green spirit was not very precious, because obsidian could also be used to seal contract creatures. However, be it obsidian or any other kind of gems, the progress of the sealed contract creature would be halted. On the contrary, the green spirit still allowed the sealed contract creature to undergo amazing transformations.
As Saleen looked at the winged skeleton which was sealed within the green spirit, he could feel the emotions it was experiencing. Weariness, sadness, helplessness, and fatigue. Such complicated emotions were in abundance, and were more than what Nailisi was experiencing.
Daniel was simply engrossed with his new contract creature, and did not even notice Saleen’s actions. Saleen put away the green spirit and said to Lex, “After some time when the winged skeleton’s injuries have recovered, I will have one more grade-6 helper. What do you think?”
“It’s a little… wasteful.” Lex shook her head. The winged skeleton might have been a grade-6 creature, but there were other stronger magic beasts in the interdimensional space which Saleen could choose from. Now that this green spirit had been utilized, it would not be possible for it to seal other creatures anymore.
“I like this fellow. I believe any other mage would like them as well.” In the depths of his soul, Saleen could feel that the winged skeleton had gone into a deep slumber, and there was no more response from it.
“Sooner or later, Daniel will regret his decision.” Lex looked into the distance. Daniel was desperately trying to communicate with the pikoosi since he wanted to subdue this death creature using a more peaceful method. The power of the death magic in the pikoosi’s six horns had been fully exhausted, so it could no longer break free from the seal using its physical strength alone.
The sealing magic array was not a gem. Such a seal would continuously weaken the pikoosi’s power. If the pikoosi could not escape, its powers would eventually decrease until it reached the grade it had been at when it was first summoned, then the seal might lose its effectiveness or the pikoosi might return to the death dimension.
“It’s useless even if he regrets it. It was his own choice.” Saleen was also observing the interaction between Daniel and the pikoosi in the distance. This death creature obviously had a bad temperament, or else it would not have been called “trample”.
“Saleen… do you have any more green spirit?”
“Do you want it?”
“No, I will suggest that you create a water puppet and give it life, so that it can be sealed within the green spirit and make progress.” Lex was, of course, not eyeing Saleen’s green spirit. If she was able to study the world created by Raphael, then that would already be much more worthwhile than working with any sealing gems.
“I think I want to refine the current cutter. Any type of puppetry is actually scattering a mage’s power. It may look strong, but it actually affects the advancement of a mage. I have made a bet with Daniel. If his grade surpasses mine, then I will lose him as a follower.”
“Aye, it’s up to you.” Lex was helpless against Saleen’s persistence. There might have been just one shenhe left on the Myers Mainland, and yet Saleen was going use to it on a level-4 spell. One could say that Saleen was down to earth, or that he was simply prodigal. After all, if a water puppet was produced, it would be equivalent to doubling Saleen’s attack frequency.
As for the current cutter? Lex was not very optimistic about such solo attack spells which could rival Fire Magic in terms of offensive power. The current cutter’s speed was still slightly slower, and the attack range was not far enough.
Saleen did not care what others might have thought. In his heart, he had already decided that he would produce a piece of equipment that had never been seen before on the Myers Mainland.
“Lex, will Daniel be okay?” Saleen asked worriedly when he noticed that Daniel had not subdued the pikoosi.
“Don’t worry. I have snuffed the pikoosi’s magic power. It doesn’t have the ability to resist too much anymore.”
“That’s good. I’m going to refine the shenhe, and as for the matter of Daniel, I’m already going to have to trouble you.” As Saleen spoke, he looked up into the moonlit sky and felt a little lonely.
Back at the magic tower, Saleen led Sika and Nailisi straight to the sixth story. He instructed Nailisi to guard the stairway, and told Sika, “I’m going to produce a piece of equipment. I don’t know how long it will take, but since its safe now, you…”
“I, need the remains of that magic beast.” Sika looked at Nailisi. The remains of the magic beast which had almost killed Saleen were still stored inside of Nailisi’s bracelet.
“Nailisi.”
“Got it…”
Nailisi carefully took out the bones of that magic beast. The bones occupied almost all of the space on the sixth story, and Saleen had no choice but to sit by the bones. He took out a light yellow calabash and began thinking.
Saleen had already thought about this countless times. Since he was going to put it into practice this time around, he felt that it would be better to be safe and conduct one more round of study. Refining equipment was not a difficult thing to do, and any mage master would be able to do it. It was just that some equipment was simple while others were more complex. Given Saleen’s skills, he had a higher chance of failure if he refined more complicated stuff, so he wanted to carry out simple tasks as much as possible or do something that he was familiar with.
A spell Saleen was familiar with was the current cutter, while the magic streaks he was most familiar with were the patterns on his clan badge. The combination of these two things might have seemed easy, but in reality, Saleen was going to fuse Water Magic into this complex system of magic streaks. The magic streaks on Saleen’s clan badge had three-dimensional structures, while the arrangement of elements in the current cutter were only two-dimensional.
Saleen needed to complicate the current cutter so that it would be compatible with the magic streaks on the clan badge.
Those magic streaks contained the seventh power, which was different from the six elements. It was the power of lightning, which mages had never tried controlling before.
Saleen occupied the entire sixth story. It was obvious he did not want to be disturbed. While he stayed on the highest floor for a prolonged period of time, Lex calmly refined various kinds of alchemical components.
The entire first and second story of the magic tower had been converted into an alchemy laboratory by Lex. Since Daniel had nowhere else to go, he could only stay behind and assist Lex. After subduing the pikoosi, Daniel was feeling satisfied, so he did not mind staying a little longer on this island. This island had a stable connection to the death dimension, so even though Daniel was not on the sixth story, he could still make quick progress.
Lex wanted to manufacture large quantities of machine components. It was not possible for Lex to produce everything herself, so she needed to enlist help from alchemical equipment, and in that case, the daily depletion of magic nuclei would be as swift as running water.
In the beginning, Lex had been producing the items inside of the magic tower. However, later on, she decided to simply produce those components inside the turtle shell itself.
“Daniel, bring me the metal matrix labeled ‘601’!”
“Daniel, use your death flames to melt this timber. It should be melted until it is only one percent of its original size.”
“Daniel, command your pet to lift the turtle shell up. Yes, then put the obsidian core labeled ‘1020’ under it.”
“Daniel…”
Lex seemed to be working continuously. At first, Daniel was glad to be helping because it was always a joyous affair to be able to work together with an unrivalled lady such as Lex. However, as Lex’s tasks became tougher, Daniel felt that his mental power was beginning to seem inadequate. At this point, he realized that the tireless Lex was very much stronger than him. The two of them were simply from different worlds.
Lex only asked him to do the more menial tasks, while she took on the more complex ones. Daniel could not help but start lamenting. What exactly was Saleen doing on the sixth story of the magic tower? With Saleen’s help, the refinement of the turtle shell could be completed earlier. However, since Lex did not mention anything about him, Daniel did not dare to look for Saleen either.
For some reason, Daniel had grown fearful of Saleen after subduing the pikoosi. This fear seemed to have come out of nowhere, and even Daniel could not figure out the reason behind it. If the two of them engaged in battle now, Daniel did not think that he would lose since he had the pikoosi by his side.
Saleen must be afraid that I am progressing too quickly. That’s why he seized the sixth story for himself.
As Daniel made wild guesses in his head, his hands never stopped working. Right now, he needed to construct an alchemical frame so that the turtle shell could be placed on top of it. This three-dimensional frame would eventually become a complex magic array sequence, as it would fuse the turtle shell and the alchemical machine components into one.
Daniel had never heard of Lex’s techniques before.
“Lex!” Daniel could no longer tolerate it anymore and asked, “Why are the pairs of hands under Saleen not helping?”
Daniel did not ask why Saleen was not helping. He could tell that Saleen and Lex shared a very intimate relationship, and it seemed like they were hiding some very important matters from him. Of course, Daniel would not put himself at a disadvantage by asking why Saleen was not working. But as for Saleen’s subordinates, what right did they have to not do anything and simply have a death mage do all the menial tasks?
“Daniel, don’t be angry.” Lex smile was like a breeze blowing over the surface of water, yet it caused countless ripples in Daniel’s heart. Then, in a solemn tone, Lex said, “Sika and Nailisi aren’t Saleen’s subordinates. They are his friends.”